North Shore YMCA founds program to support cancer patients, families

Monday

The free initiative, Corner Stone, is the first of its kind in Massachusetts

Lindsay Northrop, a Marblehead mom of two young boys, knows firsthand how a cancer diagnosis can impact an entire family.

“Cancer doesn’t just affect the person going through treatment,” said Northrop, who at age 40 has survived breast cancer not once, but twice. “It affects family members, children, parents, caregivers.”

Northrop is part of Corner Stone, a free initiative at YMCAs of the North Shore, supporting cancer patients, cancer survivors, and their families. It’s the first of its kind in Massachusetts.

“Corner Stone meets people wherever they are in their cancer journey,” said Gerald McKillop, director of the Lynch/van Otterloo YMCA in Marblehead. “We’re building the community and support systems for all people impacted by cancer.”

Corner Stone launched at the LVO Y in Marblehead on Nov. 2 and has already enrolled more than 100 participants. It will be offered at all seven YMCA of the North Shore locations by the end of the month.

Corner Stone offers:

A free Y membership for cancer patients and survivors and their families for one yearAccess to all Y member benefits along with specialized health and wellness programsA complimentary week of summer camp for children in families enrolled in the programA schedule of special drop-off care for kids of parents in treatmentSpecial support groups, meet-ups, and family events designed for Corner Stone members

The Y is partnering with several healthcare providers, including Dana-Farber and Lahey Health, to provide mobile cancer screenings, health education events, symposiums and more.

Northrop is running a Corner Stone support group at the Marblehead Y for young women with, or recovering from, breast cancer.

“We talk about surgeries, radiation, and our experiences, and how hard it was on our partners," she said. "Moving forward, we’ll be getting speakers to talk about things like sexual health and body image, parenting issues, fertility issues.

“We also want to talk about supportive therapies like reiki, acupuncture, and EFT, or emotional freedom technique,” she added. “We’ll talk about mental health, too, and fear of recurrence. Only someone else who’s gone through cancer treatment can understand that.”

Dr. Laura Simpson, a primary care physician who lives and works in Marblehead, is also part of the Corner Stone program, as a LVO Y Board member. (Everyone who participates, volunteers, or donates to the program is considered a Corner Stone.) Simpson says this is different from other cancer support programs.

“As a clinician, we’re used to seeing someone, delivering a cancer diagnosis and sending them off to an oncologist,” Simpson said. “This program is so refreshing. It’s supportive and community based.”

The best part of Corner Stone, Simpson added, is the emotional support it provides not just for the patient, but the entire family. Many of her patients receiving a cancer diagnosis worry first about the impact it will have on their families.

“I had a woman who couldn’t tell her young son about her ovarian cancer,” Simpson said. “It’s the first place that people go in their head. ‘I’m worried about my kids, my husband, my wife.’ You hear this all the time. Corner Stone is nice because it’s an easy place to start to assuage some of that worry.”

To learn more about Corner Stone, visit www.ymcacornerstone.org or contact Sarah Picard at picards@northshoreymca.org or 978-564-3468.